Southwest Graduate English Symposium Arizona State University February 16 - 18 2007

The Violent (Re)turn to Ethics?: Implications, Complications, and Situations

The Ethics of (re)presentation: Imagining Others

What are the ethical limits of the imagination? What is the ethical responsibility of the author or literary critic who attempts to imagine or represent another? What kinds of violence are enacted in the move to represent an "other?" How does one avoid the collapse of the distinction between the self and other people and the consequent subjugation or effacement of these others in imaginary acts of representation? How also, would one (re)present an other in a historically and politically responsible way?

How is the ethical imagination challenged in times of crisis? What ethical challenges exist in quotidian experiences? How do contemporary narrative in English articulate ethical concerns? Is there a case for criticism based on a deconstructive ethics? Does ethical criticism presuppose liberal humanistic values?

The Southwest Graduate English Symposium at Arizona State University is asking for twenty minute presentations that focus on any of these questions as well as speak back to other academic and public fields (gender, race, science, technology, religion, art, history, philosophy, politics, etc.). The conference is inclusive and also welcomes creative interpretations of the topic. Please send 300 word abstracts to asu2007symp_at_yahoo.com attention Stacey by November 30, 2006